This bespoke world of sights and sounds, appropriated, invented, improvised and collaged together, comes alive like a pop-up picture book from your childhood. ![]() The town, which acts as a sandbox, is remodelled based on the writing style and perspective of each contributor. As Arthur advises his writers, “Just try to make it sound like you wrote it that way on purpose.” Every detail Anderson adds to build the town of Ennui-sur-Blasé is purposeful too. The film, which borrows its framework from this issue, transports us into a short travelogue, three feature stories, and an obituary. Before its publication is discontinued, as per his request, the editorial staff comes together one last time for a final issue. (Bill Murray), has just passed after a sudden cardiac arrest. When the film begins, the dispatch’s esteemed editor-in-chief, Arthur Howitzer Jr. For Anderson, the past isn’t romanticised because it was easier, happier or better, but because when staged through our mind’s eye, the memory carries a lot more significance than our shapeless present or future. As an artist, he is unafraid to flirt with self-caricature, well aware of his skewed romanticisation. The nonsensical name is a deliberate choice Anderson makes to play up the artificiality of his world. No French person of sound mind or French speaker with sound grammar would ever believe either of those cities are real. The outpost of said publication is located in the fictional mid-20th century town of Ennui-sur-Blasé, a name as nonsensical as Port au Patois in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Structured as a collection of three stories reported for the dispatch, the film explores the eternal conflict between art and commerce, the utopian impulses of a revolution that never was, and the comfort of food while away from home. The latest edition of the French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, which gives the film its title, has sections on travel, art, politics, and food. ![]() A love letter that looks and feels like a special issue of the New Yorker transposed to film. Anderson takes some of these cliches and caricatures in his stride as he crafts a love letter to the country, its culture and its history. Indeed, Hollywood itself has always romanticised France, with a navy blue-and-white striped shirt, a beret on the head, a baguette under the arm, and a cigarette in the mouth. On running away from their homes in Moonrise Kingdom, 12-year-olds Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward) try adulthood for size with a beach dance-off which ends with an awkward first kiss - all set to Suzy’s favourite record, Francoise Hardy’s “Le temps de l’amour.” Bien sûr, Francophilia doesn’t get more infectious than in Anderson’s latest ensemble piece, The French Dispatch. ![]() In Rushmore, 15-year-old Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), the red beret-wearing president of his prep school’s French club, attempts to woo his teacher by playing a tape of Yves Montand’s “Rue St. ![]() Francophilia also takes hold quite young among his characters. The country’s cinema and pop culture are referenced, reconfigured and romanticised in almost every film, whether it is three words lifted from Jules et Jim in the context of a love triangle or a wholesale homage to the oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. Wes Anderson has always had a love for all things France. Duration: 1 hour 47 minutes | Language: English | Rating: 4
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